Retail and grocery stores provide their customers with paper and plastic bags to accommodate merchandise and facilitate transport of the merchandise to a remote location, such as a home. After use, some of these bags are recycled into paper and plastic products. However, the majority of the paper and plastic bags are discarded garbage that end up in landfills, in incinerators, or as windblown litter causing widespread pollution. Conventional plastic bags made from petroleum are not biodegradable and have caused detrimental effects to the environment. Plastic bags contain hazardous inks that can rinse off and seep with water into the ground water, streams and lakes. Paper bags made from renewable wood resources consume these resources and require considerable amounts of energy to manufacture and distribute. It is recognized that paper and plastic bags have numerous negative environmental consequences. Environment and conservation minded persons, organizations, businesses, and governments in the United States and abroad have created a movement to encourage or to require shoppers to use reusable shopping bags instead of the conventional paper and plastic bags. Examples of U.S. patents describing reusable shopping bags include the following U.S. patents.
W. H. Post in U.S. Pat. No. 1,604,658 discloses a reusable single shopping bag and hand bag usable in a folded condition as a hand bag and in an unfolded condition as a shopping bag. When the bag is in the folded condition, a first flap and a releasable fastener retain the bag in its folded condition. A second flap extended between a pair of handles and a releasable fastener partly close the open end of the bag in the unfolded condition. E. W. Simms in U.S. Pat. No. 1,606,107 discloses a single reusable bag for use as a hand bag or article carrier. The bag when in its folded and unfolded condition has a pair of loop handles used to hand carry the bag. A flap holds the bag in its folded condition and partly closes the open top of the bag in its unfolded condition.
E. W. Geckler et al in U.S. Pat. No. 2,654,527 discloses a single paper bag having two compartments formed from a single sheet of paper. The bag has a main body with an open top chamber to accommodate merchandise and a separate pocket coextensive in length with the main body for holding additional merchandise.
T. P. Brennan in U.S. Pat. No. 5,046,860 discloses a reusable shopping bag assembly having a primary bag and a plurality of rolled auxiliary bags. As shown in FIG. 7, the primary bag has a pair of loop handles used to hand carry the bag. A pocket for storing auxiliary bags is stitched to the center of the exterior side wall of the primary bag. A cover attached to the exterior side wall of the primary bag closes the open top of the pocket.
N. R. Lugo in U.S. Pat. No. 5,182,895 discloses an independent shopping bag carrier accommodating reusable folded side-by-side shopping bags. Each shopping bag is color coded to identify the size of the bag. The color coding of each bag is visible through the top opening of the carrier to enable the shopper to select a bag for accommodating merchandise.
K. L. Potts et al in U.S. Pat. No. 6,206,224 discloses a shopping caddy system to be used in an automobile. The caddy has a plurality of rectangular compartments that hold reusable collapsible bags upright during automobile transport. The outside wall of the bag has a slip pocket. A pair of loop handles secured to the side walls of the bag are used to hand carry the bag and place it in the caddy.